[Auto Exam] Very A-Mazing (Piper/Lock)

[medigel]

Quote:

Y2 -> Y3 EXAMS STUDENTS ONLY


Welcome to the official Y2 > Y3 EXAM DUNGEON

An exam is necessary to pass from Y2 to Y3 but the exam can either be this self-run dungeon, or you may post for an NPC run exam here if you would prefer NPC interaction! Whichever you choose is up to you, but you must complete at least one in order to grow / post for growth art!

• This exam can be taken either solo or with a friend or two!
  
• This exam is taken entirely at your own pace! You can take a day, a month, a year, whatever you want!
  
• Have fun with it! This is meant to be a good opportunity to delve a little into your character!
  
• You can only do this exam if you have met the necessary RP requirements. This is not a take-anytime-and-use-later dungeon!
  
• You do not need to pass this exam, you just need to complete it (and meet the 800 word count requirement) for it to count!
  
• You must still post for your exam here; just note that you are doing the exam dungeon!
  
• GMs will still check to make sure you've completed your reqs, so make sure you've got everything ready!
  
• Y3 is the final stage for a Halloweener! Graduation is just an optional bonus stage!

Again, an exam for passing onto the next year is mandatory, but now you have the option of doing a self-run dungeon or requesting an NPC run exam! Best of luck to you all!

THE EXAM: MAZE OF MADNESS (Y2 > Y3)

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There's no note this time; you wake up in the middle of the night to find yourself standing at the entrance to an enormous maze. Towering hedges stretch on for what seem like forever, and you have no idea where at school you even are, but it seems like every time you try to step backwards, you can't. Your footsteps only carry you forwards, to the maze.

"Greetings," says a voice to your left, and when you turn you can see a pale haired man with sharp teeth smiling genially at you. "My name is Professor Zephron; I'm the Potions Professor here at school, and I'm here to guide you through your exam."

He gestures towards the maze. "It's simple, really - all you have to do is get through the maze. I'll be waiting on the other side with your certificate, so come find me, okay?"

And with a grin, he shifts into a monstrous emerald hellhound and darts away, deep into the maze.

Well. Guess you better get started!

THE EXAM

There are two parts to this exam! You must complete both in order to successfully complete it!


PART 1: COUNTING STEPS

You need to get to 30 steps in order to get to Part 2! At each milestone passed there will be a small status effect, so make sure you're reading them carefully!


• Roll 1d12 with each post to see how many steps you go!
  
• At 5 steps you realize the world has tipped and you are now walking upside down. It doesn't hurt, but it sure feels weird...
  
• At 10 steps you're right side up again, but it's like you're walking through thick mud, though you see none. Your legs feel heavier than normal.
  
• At 15 steps your legs feel okay, but now the maze keeps going in circles around you and it's starting to make you feel kind of sick...
  
• At 20 steps (thankfully) the world has stopped spinning, but you realize that somehow you've shrunk. Or maybe the maze has just gotten bigger.
  
• At 25 steps, you seem to be your normal size again, but it's so cold and so windy it's almost as though you're being pushed backwards.
  
• At 30 steps, you seem to have finally made it through almost the entire maze. In fact, you think you can see the door up ahead, except...
  
  Except....

PART 2: THE FIGHT

As you near the end of the maze, something huge blocks your way - a dark shadow that has been lurking ever since you started walking. It looms in front of you and seems to want to deny you passageway - but you've already come this far, you're not going to let a little shadow get in your way!


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Except as the shadow moves closer, it shifts form - and suddenly you're facing not a shadow, but yourself; except wispy tendrils of black are seen emanating from the fingers and toes, even the eyes upon occassion.

How...weird.


• Your shadow self has 50 HP.
  
• Use standard attack dice to kill it (2d8 - 6)!
  
• It does 2 autodamage for every successful attack. If you miss, you don't take autodamage!
  
• You are allowed to use FEARS!
  
  

Upon dissipation of your shadow self, you finally reach the end of the maze and burst through. An emerald colored hellhound sits beneath a nearby tree, looking as pleased as pie. When you walk nearer, he shifts form and the Professor comes into view again, raking blonde hair out of his eyes. There is a stack of parchments beside him; Certificates of Exam Completion.

"Congrats," he says pleasantly, and bends to pick up one of the parchments. He hands it to you with a smile. "Welcome to Hob level."

 

[chiickadee]

You know, quite frankly Lock was becoming afraid to sleep because he kept waking up in goddamn weird a** dreams. First it was wonderland, then it was a medieval place, now it was a weird jacking maze.

And Piper was there, making him doubly on edge.

He greeted her cordially, giving a slight nod of his head. "Piper." Then he looked back to the maze. He recalled quite a few hedge mazes in wonderland- perhaps they were back?  

[medigel]

Piper yawned and gave Lock's shoulder a small slap in greeting before realizing she hadn't chosen to crash at his place. Or, well, really go to say hi since coming back. Hold on, was this another one of those finicky overactive dreams again? Well, they seemed pretty alone...

"Uh, hi, Lock?" she said in turn, her voice lifting into a question as she looked around.

A voice to their left made her jump and summon her weapon, but apparently it was just the professor. d**k. The professor who just said hey just go through the maze no big deal bye and then went doggy bye bye. Diiiiiick.

"Good thing you got me here," Piper added with a grin. "I bet you missed me, huh? Don't worry, I'll strong arm anythin' that gets in the way."
 

[chiickadee]

"Not really," Lock said bluntly, narrowed eyes already looking towards the maze once the hellhound had run off. How annoying.

He looked to Piper and said, "This is either a bizarre shared existence or I'm having an anxious dream about my exam. Either way, are you coming?" He took a step towards the hedges, gesturing she follow.  

[medigel]

Well, that was a slap to her ego. She played it off with a gesture that said uh huuuuuuuh and cracked her knuckles, just in case they did end up having to fight something. "Yeah, yeah, well, I missed your stupid face. Coming!"

She took the lead, naturally, and strode confidently forward into the maze. But it barely felt like she had blinked before something weird happened. With a small cry of surprise, Piper found herself looking at this challenge in a whole new perspective--literally.

"This some kinda mind game?" she mused aloud with a frown as her hair flew out above her like a radiant blue flame. "'Cause I'm ratin' this like a 2.5 out of 5." Nonetheless, her next step was tentative, as if afraid she really would fly off the earth if she wasn't careful.

distance: 7
 

[chiickadee]

(Lock did miss her he is just tsundere).

Lock followed behind Piper, careful to guard her from anything that might attack from the rear (he was used to it, given Shun). Lock was jarred when Piper gave a cry, but it wasn't until he looked up that he realized why she was yelling.

"s**t," he grumbled, trying to find a way to not throw up from the vertigo. Lock really wasn't a big fan of heights, and threatening to fall into the sky.

Once he'd recovered his footing, he took a breath and said, "Stay on your guard," and attempted to summon Voodoo. She was surprisingly quiet (possibly scared by the setting she'd been summoned into with the whole sky thing), and ended up clinging to Lock, sitting in his hood and digging her claws into the cloth.

(Lock wanted to point out that she was quiet literally shadows and there was no need for such dramatics).

Distance: 6  

[medigel]

She paused when she heard Lock curse and very slowly turned to look at him. "'Sup, Voodoo," she greeted the familiar in a slightly higher pitch than was normal. Too bad summoning her weapon would just weigh her down more rather than give any real sort of comfort. They wouldn't really make them fight things upside down, would they?

"Okay, just a dumb mind trick, just a dumb mind trick..." Lips pressed together, Piper took a few more steps forward until the world suddenly right itself. The abrupt shift caused a small wave of vertigo and nausea to go through her, and she held her arms out for balance and tossed her head back with a puff of air to get it all out of her face.

"Phew. Well, that's wasn't so ba...what the?"

It was as if something was clinging to her legs. Making a face, Piper forced one through whatever invisible substance was holding her down and felt it stamp on the ground with more force than necessary. "Heads up, we got, like, inviso mud or something. Rrrrgh..." She stamped another foot forward with some effort.

distance: 11
 

[chiickadee]

Lock raised an eyebrow at Piper. His legs weren't stuck in the muddy muck, so he had no clue what Piper was going on about.

"Good to know. One foot in front of the other ..."

Distance: 9  

[medigel]

"Oh my Jack, this is so stupid!" Piper whined as her progress grinder to a halt from all this...whatever this was she was trying to get through. "How is this a test of our skills, huh? Seriously, this is just wastin' time..." Maybe she should consider just blasting a path through the maze instead.

Distance: 14  

[chiickadee]

"I don't know," Lock admitted, "Perhaps it will reveal itself."

Or perhaps it was just "hard to walk" simulator.

Voodoo was cackling either way.

Distance: 13  

[medigel]

"Or maybe he just made this s**t up on the fly," Piper grumbled. She had been hoping for something epic and worthy of hitting hob goblin, not a walk through mini Wonderland all over again.

The mass spun around her dizzyingly as she founded a corner, forcing her to grab the wall and inch long it while trying not to get too nauseous. When the next effect came up, she didn't recognize anything had happened at first, too busy trying to right herself to notice. It was only when she turned to check on Lock's progress that she realized something was up.

"Jack damn it, the place shrunk me!" Tiny Piper squeaked indignantly.

Distance: 22  

[chiickadee]

Lock was beginning to feel sick with how the maze was spinning. Even Piper was starting to look farther and farther away.

Wait no, she actually was getting farther away. "Piper hold on," he told her, clutching his stomach from the nausea. Suddenly Piper looked a lot smaller- but that couldn't be it. That wasn't a thing that happened.

"s**t," Lock cursed again. Another thing he'd picked up from Shun.

Distance: 16  

[medigel]

"No it's okay, it just, like, startled me!" Poor Lock looked sick from the spinning and grimaced in sympathy. She tried waiting, but the faster they walked the faster they could get out of this weird gauntlet. "I'll scout ahead!"

For a small thing, the ghoul really could cover distance. She noticed the temperature was dropping however, and by the time she decided to conjure fire, she was back to her usual height; good thing too, since she had been nearly frozen over at that other size.

Making the fire brighter, she huddled against the wall and hoped Lock could follow the light quicker than the pace he was at.

Distance: 27  

[chiickadee]

"No-" But it was too late. Piper dashed ahead at full speed and was already gone.

"Dammit!" he grunted, cursing his stupid senses and lashing out at the air for no reason. Voodoo hopped out of his hood and tried to walk forward, a guide.

"C'mon stupid, we're gonna lose her!"

Lock gritted his teeth, annoyed that he had to lean on his familiar like a crutch. But it was the only way. In a fit of teenage rage, he pushed through all the size changes and broached the distance to meet Piper, even getting a little ahead of her. "Don't run off!" he scolded her, picking up Voodoo with one arm and shielding himself from the cold wind with the other. "You and Shun both, I swear to Jack!"

Distance: 28  

[medigel]

She merely perked and smiled as Lock joined her, holding out the flame so they could both avoid freezing. "You do care!" she declared, all ego damage repaired in an instant. Pleased, she swung an arm around the boil, huddled up to him, and kept the fire between them so that hopefully they wouldn't become icicles before they got out.

"C'mon, I think I see the end up ahead!"

Distance: 32